The base stations of public land mobile telecommunications networks each have a radio range determined by the characteristics of their transmitting and receiving equipment and their location. The range determines the coverage area of the cell of the base station in which user equipment (LIE), such as a telephone handset, is able to establish a communications channel with the base station. Accordingly, the coverage of the network is determined by both the selection and position of the base station of the network. Coverage in remote areas is always problematic, as it is generally cost prohibitive to install a base station in an area where usage of the network is very low. Accordingly, alternatives need to be adopted in order to extend network service to users in remote locations.
One alternative for remote locations is the use of satellite telecommunications infrastructure. Satellite telephones and access charges to satellite networks are however costly. Another alternative which has been used in Australia is to place mobile handset equipment at the edge of a mobile network's coverage, and then run a fixed copper line from the handset to terminal equipment at the remote location, e.g. the user's home. This gives rise to disadvantages associated with installation and maintenance of the copper lines for users, together with the cost of having the dedicated phones placed at the edge of the network.
Two other alternatives involve the use of radio frequency (RF) repeater systems. These are:                (i) a RF repeater at the edge of the coverage of the network so as to directly retransmit or relay the RF signals to and from the donor base station of the cell and the UE at a remote location outside of the coverage area. This, however, introduces the problem of feedback between the receiving and transmitting antennas of the repeater. Attempts have been made to reduce this feedback by introducing echo cancellers to remove the original signal at the repeater from the retransmitted signal, but this has proved expensive and feedback still occurs, such as from reflections from transport vehicles moving within the area.        (ii) a two stage RF translation system including a RF translator located at the donor base station of the cell to translate the RF signals from the donor base station to a different carrier frequency to that of the network for transmission to a RF repeater located on the edge of the coverage area. The repeater in turn then translates the received RF signals from the RF translator back to the original carrier frequency for transmission to the UE. RF transmission from the UE is similarly translated at the repeater site to communicate with the RF translator and hence to the donor base station. This however is a more expensive solution than (i) and suffers the disadvantage of having to install and maintain additional equipment at the base station as well infrastructure at the repeater site.        
Accordingly, it is desired to address the above, or at least provide a useful alternative.